scholarly journals A longitudinal study of language learners’ images about Russia

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-117
Author(s):  
Larisa Nikitina
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Systematic Classification ◽  
European Languages ◽  
East Malaysia ◽  
Questionnaire Surveys

Abstract Several studies in the field of applied linguistics have explored images held by language learners about a target language country. However, for the most part, these studies focused on learners of modern European languages, such as German, Spanish and French and they were conducted in Western educational contexts. Besides, none of the previous investigations attempted to conduct a systematic classification of the language learners’ images. The present longitudinal study addressed these gaps in the research literature. It explored images about Russia held by Malaysian learners of the Russian language in a large university in East Malaysia. This article reports the findings of three questionnaire surveys conducted in 2004, 2007 and 2010. It was found that the images about Russia held by the participants were diverse and clustered around eight countryrelated aspects. Content of some categories of images was stable and changed little over time. Other categories were more fluid and more prone to change. The paper concludes with a discussion of pedagogical implications that can be derived from the findings.

Asian English language learners’ identity construction in an after school literacy site

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayoung Choi
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Identity Development ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Immigrant Students ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Target Language ◽  
After School

The importance of students’ identity development has increasingly been acknowledged in the fields of second language acquisition and literacy research. In the cases of two populations receiving growing attention in the research literature, English Language Learners (immigrant students learning English in school settings) and Heritage Language Learners (students attempting, informally or formally, to learn or further develop a language other than English that is spoken in the home environment), identity construction is an especially complicated process. These students move between two environments, one where the native language and culture are represented and another where a second or target language and its culture are engaged. Determining where and with whom they affiliate academically, culturally, linguistically, and socially is an ongoing process. This article describes a qualitative study of four Asian adolescent English Language Learners who participated in an after school literacy club where, through reading multicultural literature and responding to the literature and each other through face to face discussions and electronically via a Wiki site within a Read, Talk, and Wiki (RTW) format, they also engaged in a process of identity construction. The article examines how the RTW club created an important space in which this process occurred and how the students made use of this setting.

scholarly journals Phraseological and non-phraseological methods of translating phraseological units in the works of D. H. Lawrence

2020 ◽  
pp. 41-50
Author(s):  
Nailya Irekovna Gololobova
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Source Language

This article is dedicated to the methods of translating phraseological units in the works of D. H. Lawrence. Based on examination of the scientific works of leading scholars in the area of phraseology, the author reviews classification of the methods of translating phraseological units, and underlines the preference of using phraseological method. Having analyzed the literary works of D. H. Lawrence, the author highlights all instances of translation of phraseological units into Russian language. For achieving the set goal, the author found two versions of translation of each work conducted by different translators. Such instances were illustrated by examples of the selected literary works in the source language and target language. The patterns and difficulties of translation of same phraseological units faced by different translator were determined. The author carried out statistical analysis of using different methods of translation, and concluded on the frequency of usage of the most preferable technique of translating phraseological units. The main conclusion lies in the fact that the most preferred method of translation appears to be the rarest (total 17%), while the percentage of use of this method varies from translator to translator. However, the author notes that inability to use a phraseological method of translation does not always mean a poor quality translation,  and in many instances is justified; but, at the same time, the author proves that translators should pay more attention to recognition of phraseological units and seek for phraseological equivalents and analogues of translated phraseological units in the target language.

scholarly journals Tools for Empowering Young Learners: Language Learner Autonomy

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Che Wan Ida Rahimah bt. Che Wan Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Networking Tools

This paper critically reviews the potential of social networking tools in the context of informal learning of language for young learners. It provides a synthesis of the research literature in the field that relevant to communities of educators and a series of illustrative examples of how these tools are being used in autonomous language learning. It draws out that the learners are currently turning to the social networking tools for their own, independent language learning. Alongside this, these tools have the potential to greatly enhance the opportunities available for language learners to make meaningful use of their target language in real‐time contexts and to develop their productive language skills. For that reason, the use of these tools is a more dynamic approach to language learning, so that the learners gain autonomy and be responsible for their own language learning.

Phonetic iconicity in the evaluative morphology of a sample of Indo-European, Niger-Congo and Austronesian languages

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renáta Gregová ◽  
Lívia Körtvélyessy ◽  
Július Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Three Dimensional Model ◽  
Austronesian Languages ◽  
Place Of Articulation ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Phonetic Symbolism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Core Vocabulary

Universals Archive (Universal #1926) indicates a universal tendency for sound symbolism in reference to the expression of diminutives and augmentatives. The research ( Štekauer et al. 2009 ) carried out on European languages has not proved the tendency at all. Therefore, our research was extended to cover three language families – Indo-European, Niger-Congo and Austronesian. A three-step analysis examining different aspects of phonetic symbolism was carried out on a core vocabulary of 35 lexical items. A research sample was selected out of 60 languages. The evaluative markers were analyzed according to both phonetic classification of vowels and consonants and Ultan's and Niewenhuis' conclusions on the dominance of palatal and post-alveolar consonants in diminutive markers. Finally, the data obtained in our sample languages was evaluated by means of a three-dimensional model illustrating the place of articulation of the individual segments.

COLLECTING THE PERSONAL ORIGIN DOCUMENTS OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR PERIOD

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-114
Author(s):  
Elena M. Burova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Literature ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Organization Of Work ◽  
Great Patriotic War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ordinary Citizens

The article covers the issues of initiative acquisition of archives in the documents of personal origin during the Great Patriotic War, the organization of work to identify and collect the wartime documents. Collecting documents of ordinary citizens, in particular letters from the front and to the front is analyzed. Proposals to create the specialized archives of documents on the history of the war were never implemented. Quite a lot of the actions, search operations and expeditions were conducted in the country, for example, the “Chronicle of the Great Patriotic War”, the “Frontline letter”, the “Search”, the “Memory”, etc., during which a significant number of documents of war participants and home front workers were collected and stored. Not so much of the documents of personal origin of the war participants are concentrated in the archives. In general, there prevails the collection type of organization for storing documents from the period of the Great Patriotic War. With reference to the corpus of documents of personal origin of the war period the research literature pays its attention mostly to correspondence and diaries, memoirs. Historians and archivists, analyzing wartime letters, offer different classifications depending on the authors, recipients, subjects, etc. The article provides a generalized classification of letters based on their inherent similarities. The author also analyzes the reasons for a small number of extant diaries and memoirs, and provides examples of their classification. Likewise the article describes current approaches to the collection of personal papers within the frames of the Moscow Glavarkhiv project “Moscow – with care for history” and the Ministry of Defense project “The Memory Road”.

The Potential of the Russian Language Textbook in the Formation of Primary Schoolchildren’s Communicative Literacy

2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (8) ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
M. I. Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Primary School Children ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
The Given ◽  
The Russian Language ◽  
Speech Situation ◽  
Linguistic Means

One of the goals of the Russian language course in the primary school is the formation of the communicative literacy. The content of the course should be aimed at understanding the wealth of linguistic means by primary school children; the formation of the ability to detect a violation of linguistic norms and the inadequacy of the linguistic means used in the speech situation; the accumulation of the experience in choosing of linguistic means in accordance with the peculiarities of the speech situation; the creation of oral and written texts that meet the criteria of content, connectivity, compliance with the norms of the Russian literary language. The article considers the classification of exercises that contribute to the formation of communicative literacy. The author gives the examples of exercises where the student acts in different roles: the student is an observer of the speech situation and analyzes the adequacy of the choice of linguistic means; the student is a direct participant in the given speech situation and makes a choice of language facilities; the student is offered to create the speech situation himself, to independently construct an oral and written text.

Translating ambiguous and nonambiguous Words in a foreign Language

2003 ◽  
Vol 139-140 ◽  
pp. 129-152
Author(s):  
Paul Bogaards ◽  
Elisabeth Van Der Linden ◽  
Lydius Nienhuis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
The Individual

The research to be reported on in this paper was originally motivated by the finding that about 70% of the mistakes made by university students when translating from their mother tongue (Dutch) into their foreign language (French) were lexical in nature (NIENHUIS et al. 1989). This was partially confinned in the investigation described in NIENHUIS et al. (1993). A closer look at the individual errors suggested that many problems were caused by words with more than one meaning which each require different translations in the target language. In the research reported on in this paper, we checked our fmdings in the light of what is known about the structure of the bilingual lexicon and about the ways bilinguals have access to the elements of their two languages. On the basis of the model of the bilingual lexicon presented by KROLL & Sholl (1992) an adapted model is proposed for the processing of lexical ambiguity. This leads to a tentative schema of the mental activities that language learners have to perfonn when they are translating from their mother tongue into a foreign language, The second part of the paper describes two experiments we have carried out in order to find empirical support for such a schema. The last section of the paper contains a discussion of the results obtained as well as the conclusions that can be drawn.

Assessing the L2 pragmatic awareness of non-native EFL teacher candidates: Is spotting a problem enough?

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-65
Author(s):  
Karen Glaser
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Target Language ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Efl Teacher ◽  
Pragmatic Awareness ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Research Gap

AbstractThe assessment of pragmatic skills in a foreign or second language (L2) is usually investigated with regard to language learners, but rarely with regard to non-native language instructors, who are simultaneously teachers and (advanced) learners of the L2. With regard to English as the target language, this is a true research gap, as nonnative English-speaking teachers (non-NESTs) constitute the majority of English teachers world-wide (Kamhi-Stein 2016). Addressing this research gap, this paper presents a modified replication of Bardovi-Harlig and Dörnyei’s (1998) renowned study on grammatical vs. pragmatic awareness, carried out with non-NEST candidates. While the original study asked the participants for a global indication of (in)appropriateness/ (in)correctness and to rate its severity, the participants in the present study were asked to identify the nature of the violation and to suggest a repair. Inspired by Pfingsthorn and Flöck (2017), the data was analyzed by means of Signal Detection Theory with regard to Hits, Misses, False Alarms and Correct Rejections to gain more detailed insights into the participants’ metalinguistic perceptions. In addition, the study investigated the rate of successful repairs, showing that correct problem identification cannot necessarily be equated with adequate repair abilities. Implications for research, language teaching and language teacher education are derived.

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